brought into contact with what I conceived to be a real hero! I had listened with deep admiration to the wonderful break-neck adventures of Sans Pouces and Vapard, and had pondered over the wild legends of Bernard Landriot, and looked with a kind of awe on the rude Auvergnât as he told his dreary tales; my astonishment had been excited at the marvellous lore, as it seemed to me, of Denis Pingré, the little marguillier of Saint Jacques du Haut Pas; and I had envied the sharpness and ready wit of my friend Chicou; but until now it struck me that I had never yet seen a man whose activity of disposition, mental energy, and personal appearance qualified him for any undertaking that required boldness and address for its successful achievement.

He soon saw that I was struck by his appearance, and pleasing him, he talked to me very good-naturedly; said that he made no my admiration doubt I should one day be as clever as himself, and finally promised to see what he could do for me.

I learnt from his conversation that he was then travelling with the Marquis de Courtine, and an English gentleman, his friend, who were at present staying at Fontainebleau, from whence he had obtained a day or two's leave of absence, and had come over to Orleans to see his sister before he set out on a journey of some length, he believed into Germany, but the question was not yet settled. Who these gentlemen were, and how I became associated with their travels will appear hereafter.

LIFE AND REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS CAMPBELL.

BY CYRUS REDDING.

СНАР. ХІ.

The Poet's Political Economy-Editorial Troubles-Mention of MooreSenor Manoel de Goristiza-Pun of the Poet-Irving, the Scotch Minister -Habits, when at Work-Error of Sir Walter Scott-Campbell's sudden Caprices-Restlessness of Disposition.

SAY was the great French authority on political economy at this period; he was answered by Mr. S. Gray. Shortly afterwards Campbell got a review of Mr. Place's "Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population" written; in which subject, too, he was for a time absorbed, as it was closely allied with the more general one. He warmly contended for the theory of Malthus, notwithstanding that author begs his main point. Mr. Place, some said, had set Godwin at rest; thus his arguments were worthy of universal notoriety; and so the poet thought. Day after day, calling upon Campbell, political economy came first upon the tapis; then followed Place on Godwin. Light literature was forgotten; poetry reposed on his library shelves; the Hebrew lexicon lay unopened; his favourite Greek was neglected; and his attention, when required for the magazine, was difficult to extort. Godwin, Malthus, Booth, and Place, were the burdens of the conversation. Here, too, the premises, on which many of the arguments on all sides had been founded, were to a certain extent begged in the data. There were then no correct statements of the population in England, no registrar-general's returns; in America it was not much better. Recourse was, therefore, had to certain Swedish documents, in the same position as to correctness. It was no matter, the interest excited continued unchanged. The state of the population at the Norman conquest was referred to in arguing the question, and this would give rise to a discussion on the correctness of the statement upon which the whole argument reposed. Campbell, as was his custom, argued warmly on the side of the question he had espoused, and it could easily be seen that he had his predilections. It was extremely hard to keep him to the cold fact; often impossible. He would have had more papers than one on the subject every month, but from reminding him that this topic was confined to the knowledge of few persons, and that a magazine was intended for readers of every class.

The topic, which for a time was so warmly discussed, became in turn exhausted; but it was extremely difficult to get Campbell to keep in remembrance the particular aim of the work. It has been stated, that though all articles were to be directed to the publisher, Campbell's name was so well known, and besides, so many were inclined to tender their services, competent or not, that articles were now and then delivered at his residence. Occasionally, he would be asked by a friend whether such and such a thing would suit him, and, without considering, he would reply, "Oh, yes; send it by all means." The article not being suitable, he found himself in a dilemma about returning it.

One day he received a paper upon a subject, treated with exceeding dryness, which he had obtained in this manner. I observed to him that it was too uninteresting for us. He replied, "I cannot help it now I have got it; I have promised its insertion." This article was entitled "The Republic of Plato," and appeared in the second year of his editorship. I took it home, and soon afterwards sent it to the printer. Campbell was so sensitive, and had spoken so strongly upon the article and its merits, that to raise further objections, after what he had said, would have offended him. This article appeared, or at least the first of a series of three. The result was a note from Mr. Colburn, to whom there were enough to be found ready to comment ill-naturedly, even when there was no ground for it; and besides, his own tact in such matters could not but have made him aware of the uninteresting, arid nature of the paper. I confessed the justice of the objection. I had done, in the way of endeavouring to set it aside, all I could. Campbell having promised, had I kept back the paper, a rupture would have been inevitable. I urged him to make only conditional promises in future: he admitted the good policy of thus acting, and sometimes remembered to do so when personally pressed. Once he called upon me, and left some verses he had received in this way, which he thought were original; instead of this, they were given him as a specimen, by an individual who wanted to get money for similar writings. He did not find this out until he got home again, when he sent me the following sentence in a characteristic note:

"Send me back the printed thing about Anacreon, which I left just now-it is from an infernal begging parson."

Campbell, who was exceedingly good-natured, and reluctant to give a denial to his friends, was not accustomed to say "No:" he disliked it, and spoke too often without reflection. This pressing contributions personally is at least ill-mannered: it was then too prevalent; and, in the present day, is far more a subject of annoyance than it was twenty years ago. It is in some respects, too, an insult, since it implies that the article is thus safely placed beyond the editor's imprimatur before examination.

The number of papers offered for the publication was considerable. On one occasion I called, and found the poet with two or three articles before him, writing to those who had sent them to him. "It is a shame for me to give you these," he said; "they are sent to me by a man I know: I ought to read and send them back myself-you have enough to return." I took the note he had written, in order to seal up the papers while he was writing a letter. I found they did not belong to the party to whom the note had been written. The note itself will serve to show how long and painstaking the poet was in inditing that which, if extended beyond three or four lines, it would have occupied a clerk a week to write and attach to all the monthly trifles received for the publication, if each had been returned with so exact an epistle.

"One of the most unpleasant parts of my duty as an editor, is being sometimes obliged to return their contributions to literary men for whom I entertain a high general respect. It is with much sincerity that I have to thank you for your former pieces, as well as the offer of the present. As you have done me the honour of submitting them to me, you will also, possibly, excuse my frankness in saying that I do not think them

quite as interesting as the preceding, and that I could only wish to retain the sonnet, the Anacreontic, and the epigrams.

"I have kept your MSS. to await your pleasure on this subject. If it be quite agreeable to let me publish those only, I shall be much obliged to you: but if it be of any consequence that they should be published together or not at all, I will return you the manuscript entire."

I remarked that he had taken too much pains; that merely stating they were unsuitable would be enough, "I thought something of the kind, too," replied the poet, but I did not know where to stop."

Sometimes, despite every precaution, writers sent to him directly, and he could not make out to what subject their letters bore relation. Then he would feel irritable and annoyed, in a way almost inconceivable. He would interrupt his immediate studies to write a note to myself, who was living not a hundred yards off, and it was most probable should be certain to see him in the evening of the same day. If I happened to be out, and he got no reply, he was impatient until he saw me.

"My good friend, can you tell me any thing about this pestilent fellow, who is claiming some nonsense or another he had sent to me, he says perhaps you have got the article. I think I remember something about it. It was refused, I think. There is the Manchester post-mark. Will addressing the writer at Manchester do, think

I generally put an end to his queries by begging the application, carrying it off, and, if I had the article, returning it, or applying to the writer for a particular description, which would enable me to ransack the poet's study in search of it.

Yet, though thus irritable, and set out of his way by little things, I remember his telling me a story he had heard about Moore, whose friendship he valued above that of almost all other men. It was to the effect that Moore, having postponed dressing for a dinner-party until the last moment, and missing a knee-buckle, got so annoyed at the accident, that he sent off an apology for not accepting the invitation. "Only think of that," said Campbell. True or false, as Campbell heard the incident, it was highly illustrative of his own bearing upon annoyances even less

trivial.

Continual hints to prevent dry articles coming to him, made from myself, would sometimes, I imagined, from my tenacity upon that point, make him oppose the introduction of any particularly light. I had mentioned to him an article of the latter character, with an eulogy upon it. He approved it; and this being settled, we had a conversation about one of the driest description, which he had got a friend to write some time before, and which I thought unsuitable for the magazine. I bore too hardly, perhaps, in my opinion-harder than usual. The next morning I got a message from him, sent as if on second thoughts, that as I had argued against his article, that for which I had spoken should fare no better. "I have been thinking, since yesterday, about the article on the 'Heat of the Weather,' and I have too much confidence in your candour and friendship to hesitate in communicating to you, after all, my doubts if it will exactly suit. It is an easy, pleasant, light paper, no doubt; but still, I think we have too many light articles, and should seek for striking ones." I thought I had been the cause of this rejection by my previous remarks. I saw the paper in the London Magazine, the very next month, and had my little retaliation by telling him of it, as he had had his by its

rejection. It must be added that this was only surmise; but my long acquaintance with his bearing, and a certain je ne sais quoi about the matter, led me to believe I was not mistaken. It was the only time such a circumstance occurred during our ten years' labour together.

Among the more distinguished contributors to the Magazine, the name of Goristiza has been enumerated. This distinguished Spaniard is now in Mexico, in the diplomatic service of which country he has rendered it great benefits. Campbell, who had not read much of Spanish literature, always, among the modern nations, giving a preference to that of Germany, was much pleased at picking up, in conversation from a living writer of such high merit, information upon points of a general nature, in relation to the writings of some of those Spanish authors who were known to him more by repute than perusal. Blanco White was a melancholy man, whose studies were principally directed to the more abstruse writings of his countrymen. Goristiza was a man of the world, well read in the whole circle of Spanish literature, of easy manners, and rather vivacious temperament. He became an exile when the constitution was established, which he supported with ardour, and consequently incurred the hatred of the miserable being whom Wellington restored to the full plenitude of power on the throne of his predecessors; to do all that dishonours human reason and degrades nations. With small pecuniary means, but a truly noble mind, Goristiza fled into France, and doubting there of his security under the rule of the king whom foreigners had also replaced there, and who had taken up arms by the tacit consent of England to carry on a new war in Spain, he crossed the Channel to London. The newly recognised Mexican government, a singular fact, had not native individuals capable of taking upon themselves the diplomatic duties required at a juncture of such importance, thus low had the selfish, vicious policy of the Spanish sovereigns kept the intellect of the native colonists in America. Goristiza happened to be born in Vera Cruz, of which his father, a general in the Spanish army, had been sent over governor. He was therefore applied to as coming under the denomination of a native Mexican, well-known for his knowledge of European affairs as well as those of Spain, to be perfectly fitted for the diplomatic office for which it was so difficult to obtain qualified natives. He received the offer of the appointment while in England, and at once deciding that he would never enter Spain again until she was free and in peace, he accepted the offer. His anxiety to get his wife and family over the Pyrennees before the royal petticoat embroiderer, Ferdinand, could hear of his appointment, which would have subjected an excellent lady and her young children to a horrible prison for life, I cannot readily forget. Campbell almost daily asked me if I had seen Senor Goristiza, and whether he had heard of his wife's safety. Most fortunately the lady had anticipated the news which would have made existence a curse to her for the rest of her days. She had passed into France in the very nick of time, and reached London in safety. Having received his appointment, Goristiza fulfilled diplomatic functions in England and France, and concluded treaties with both countries highly to the advantage of that he had adopted. In London his table was open to his exiled countrymen from the peninsula. General

* November 13, 1790. His mother was Dona Maria del Rosaria Cepada, celebrated for her descent from Santa Teresa de Jesus, so noted for her writings and virtues. Born in Avila, 1515, died 1582.